


Mother Dearest

by readwritecoffee



Category: Cut & Run - Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux, Sidewinder Series - Abigail Roux
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M, Mentions of past abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 11:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4347764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/readwritecoffee/pseuds/readwritecoffee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Nick gets a phone call in the middle of the night, could it be the first step to fixing the relationship his family damaged years ago?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mother Dearest

            Nick and Kelly were almost asleep when Nick’s phone started vibrating. He no longer stored it under his pillow, something Kelly had noted their first night back on the _Fiddler_ after Miami. Instead, it vibrated against the varnished wood of his nightstand, startling them both out of their near-sleep.

            “I’m not getting that,” Nick grumbled, turning his face into Kelly’s shoulder. Kelly smiled sleepily, allowing one hand to hold Nick’s head against him while the other reached for the offending phone to check the caller ID.

            “Who the hell is ‘Do Not Answer, It’s a Trick’ and why are they calling you at 2 AM?” Kelly asked after checking the display.

            Kelly felt Nick’s body stiffen against his as he floundered for the phone, grumbling expletives under his breath as he did so. Nick snatched the phone from Kelly and slid his finger across the screen to answer it, pressing it to his ear before he could answer Kelly’s question.

            His mother’s voice was not a voice he expected to hear anymore, let alone at 2 AM. His mother’s voice pitched with fear and upset was not a voice he had expected to hear since he first left for Parris Island with bruised ribs. “Nicholas, oh thank God, I haven’t been able to get a hold of your sisters.”

            “Mom,” Nick said, his voice already rough with the sleep that now evaded him.

            Kelly’s head cocked when he heard Nick speak, but Nick shook his head and pressed a finger Kelly’s lips.

            “Your father and I had a fight-”

            “Mom, are you okay? Did he hurt you?” Kelly felt Nick’s heartbeat speed up from their chests being pressed together as they lay facing each other but not quite making eye contact.

            “He didn’t hurt me, Nicholas. I left before he could. I-” another pause and a hitch of her breath. “I told him I wanted a divorce. It’s something I’ve been thinking about…It’s why we were fighting. But I didn’t plan very well. I didn’t plan to tell him tonight, and now I don’t have anywhere to stay. My purse is at home…I don’t even have a credit card to get a hotel room for the night to figure everything out…”

            “Mom, slow down,” Nick raised his voice to be heard over her rambling. “Mom, you can come here,” he said, ignoring Kelly’s body now tensing beside him. “If you call me when you get to the marina gate, I’ll come buzz you in.”

            “Nicholas, I-”

            “No arguments, Mom. I know things aren’t great with us, but it’s really late. Just come here. Regroup. We’ll figure everything out tomorrow morning.”

            She grumbled a bit more but finally agreed, telling him she would be there in the next half hour. When she hung up, Nick turned to Kelly and without saying a word, buried his face in Kelly’s chest as Kelly’s fingers started twisting through his hair. “If we set sail now, how far do you think we can get in thirty minutes?” Nick asked, his voice muffled as his scruffy chin scratched against Kelly’s skin.

            The rumbling of Kelly’s laugh reverberated against Nick’s face.

            “I’m serious, babe. She may look fragile, but she can swim. We may not be able to escape, even if we start now.”

            Kelly’s chuckle turned into full on laughter as Nick burrowed deeper into bed, pulling Kelly on top of him to hide.

***

            Her call came in twenty minutes later that she was at the front gate. After promising to come to let her in, Nick slipped from bed and started pulling on his sweatpants from the night before, surprised when Kelly started doing the same.

            “Should I not come with you?” Kelly asked, pausing as he bent to pull on a pair of shoes.

            “No, I – I want you to,” Nick said as he pulled a t-shirt over his head. “I just – It’s freezing outside. It’s warm in here…oh, and I’m going to see my homophobic mother who, for years, completely ignored the emotional and physical abuse happening right under her own roof. I know you, babe. I know you’ve met her once, but I can’t imagine she’s going to be one of your favorite people.”

            Kelly was shaking his head. “No, you’re right. But, despite your best efforts, you _are_ one of my favorite people.” His smile was forced, at best, never quite meeting his eyes. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take you to realize this, but I mean it when I say we’re in it together. That means crazy family…”

            “That seems very one-sided,” Nick said, before he could help himself.

            Kelly winked. “Sidewinder’s my family, bud. Who’s crazier than Ty?”

            Nick chuckled.

***

            They left the boat holding hands, but as they walked through the winter night towards the gate, Nick’s arm got stiffer as they meandered. “We can ease her into it, you know,” Kelly said as he lifted their hands so Nick could see. “Say the word, and I’m just still crashing on your couch after my divorce. Almost a decade…that’s a reasonable mourning period, right?”

            Nick’s grip tightened. “No. This? Us? No more hiding.”

            Kelly nodded and maneuvered their arms so he was tucked against Nick’s side. “It’s cold,” he said in explanation, looking up at Nick with too-wide, too-innocent eyes. “Nick-hugs make the cold better.”

            “Oh Jesus Christ,” Nick said, but he was smiling just the same.

***

            Nick pulled away to type in his code to the marina, but before his mother could pull her car through, his arm was already back around Kelly who, with, every passing moment, was beginning to droop with exhaustion. “You could have stayed in bed,” Nick murmured as Kelly slumped against him.

            Kelly was saved from responding as Mrs. O’Flaherty drove through the gate, braking so that they could climb into the backseat instead of walking all the way back in the cold. “I didn’t realize you had company,” she said as both Nick and Kelly slid into the back seat. “You’re Kelly, right? You were a marine with my son?”

            She’d already started pulling forward, towards a spot by Nick’s boat, as Kelly looked to Nick for direction. “Yeah, Mom, Kelly was our medic. But that’s not why he’s visiting.”

            “Oh? Why are you visiting, dear?”

            They’d pulled to a stop now, and she had turned in her seat to face them. There were new wrinkles and worry lines on her face, ones Nick hadn’t been around to see form He hadn’t been around because he’d left…because he hadn’t been welcome.

            The realization that inviting her here was a VERY BAD IDEA crossed his mind, but panicked calls at 2AM rarely had good results, so he felt stuck. “Mom, Kelly’s visiting because he’s my boyfriend and he decided to spend his week off with me while we try to figure out more permanent living arrangements. If that’s a fight you want to have right now with everything else going on, then I can give you money for a hotel now because I’d really like to help you, but I refuse to make Kelly uncomfortable during his visit and this is as much his home now as it is mine.”

            Kelly watched the change that overtook Nick as he spoke in the dim moonlight. Despite the aging that had happened in the weeks leading up to and following Miami, Nick looked like a scared child in this moment, all wide-eyes and blushing cheeks. He looked very much like a kid terrified of a parent’s anger, or worse, dismissal. Without thinking, Kelly slid his band back into Nick’s and squeezed before he turned his attention to Mrs. O’Flaherty’s impending reaction.

            She was meeting her son’s wide-eyed stare with one of her own, her mouth moving up and down without making any sound. “Nick, I-”

            “If this can also wait until tomorrow morning, then feel free to come inside. Kelly and I can get the guest room set up for you and we can discuss Dad and whatever else you want to then.”

            When she nodded in place of saying anything else, Nick nodded in return before opening the door and sliding out, followed closely by   Kelly, who had yet to release his hand.

            His mother followed silently as they boarded the boat. Nick told her once again that he and Kelly would get a room ready for her before ushering her into the salon and leaving her there, leading Kelly towards the empty bedroom.

            “Nick, babe, you need to breathe,” Kelly said as they retrieved a set of sheets and a pile of blankets for her bedroom. “The whole stoic, dead eyes thing stopped being cute after the whole almost dying in Miami thing.”

            Nick met his imploring gaze as he slid pillows into pillowcases. “My mom? She doesn’t do shit like this,” he whispered, punching the pillow as he spoke. “No matter how hard I tried as a kid, she would never consider leaving him. Why now? I just- I begged her to, you know? Why now? Why after all these years?”

            Kelly abandoned trying to fit the sheet onto the bed in place of moving towards Nick and pulling him into a too-tight hug. “Nicholas O’Flaherty, you did everything you could in that house. More than anyone could have ever expected from you,” he whispered into Nick’s ear. “What she did or didn’t do is not on you, and neither is what she does now or in the future. You’re still doing more than anyone has any right to ask of you and I swear to you, I will be here for you every step of the way. But don’t go back there. Don’t go back to that house and your childhood. And please don’t let her bring you down. You deserve to be happy, babe, and if she makes that too difficult, we’ll find somewhere else for her to go. Do you understand me?”

            “Okay,” Nick choked, burying his face in Kelly’s neck.

            After a moment, Kelly pulled away, allowing his hands to move to Nick’s face to pat his cheek. “Okay,” he responded, giving Nick a shadow of a smile.

            Nick captured his hands once more before Kelly could escape completely, Nick’s gaze hardening as he met Kelly’s eyes. “Let me finish up here. I want you to grab my sidearm from the gun safe and keep it close tonight.”

            “Are you expecting trouble?”

            Nick shrugged, releasing Kelly’s hands. “It’s my father. I have no idea.”

***

            Kelly climbed into bed while Nick got his mom settled for the night. When Nick slipped through the bedroom door, already stripping off layers of clothing before the door was safely shut behind him, Kelly propped himself up on his elbows and waited for Nick to join him in bed. Kelly noted that, despite disrobing, Nick had left his sweatpants on…so no fun, sexy times, apparently.

            “You okay, Nicko?” he asked, as soon as Nick collapsed beside him and pulled a pillow over his head. Nick’s grunt in response seemed to be all be would get.

            Kelly scooted closer despite Nick’s seeming neglect and, once he decided he was being ignored, he flung himself over Nick, smiling at the _oof_ before Nick removed the pillow from his face. “Yes dear?” Nick asked, his words dripping with sarcasm.

            “Talk to me, O.”

            “She hasn’t said a thing about you. I showed her the room, told her where she could find anything she might need for the night, and she hasn’t said a thing about you or about us. She’s asked me about work and about any traveling I’ve done. She asked about goddamned Scotland which was years ago and she knows that. But she hasn’t said a thing about us. I just- I don’t know what to think.”

            Kelly maneuvered his arm so that he could entwine his fingers with Nick’s. “Sleep, babe. We’ll figure it out in the morning, huh?”

            Nick nodded, kissing the tip of Kelly’s nose before allowing his eyes to drift closed. “I love you, Kels,” he murmured, as Kelly snuggled into his side, draping his arm over Nick’s chest.

            “Love you too, Lucky,” he whispered, placing a kiss at the base of Nick’s neck before he too closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

***

            Nick awoke to Kelly, still asleep, smacking him in the face as he tried to turn off whatever was making noise on Nick’s side of the bed. Grunting, Nick too began to fumble for what he determined to be his phone, all the while dodging Kelly’s attempts at doing the same.

            “Jesus, Kels,” Nick said as he rolled to trap Kelly beneath him, halting the smacking hand. “Behave.”

            Maintaining the position, Nick finally answered the phone that had been ringing incessantly. “Oh my God, what is it with this family and calling when I’m asleep?”

            “Hi to you too, big brother,” came Erin’s familiar voice. Nick was struggling to focus on her as she started talking a mile a minute and keeping a now wriggling-in-protest Kelly in place so that he didn’t cause a distraction.

            “I got like thirty missed calls from mom last night, the last of which said she was going to stay with you. What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On? And a _divorce_? Since when do our dysfunctional parents actually do something that might be healthy for them? Jesus. And didn’t you say Kelly was with you this week? Has Mom seen him? What did she say? Oh Jesus, I’m coming over right now.”

            “No!” The word came a bit too loud, surprising Erin into a moment of silence and Kelly, who had managed to turn onto his back and was working his hands under the elastic of Nick’s sweatpants, into immobility. Nick took a deep breath, shifted so Kelly couldn’t make any more progress on distracting him completely, and started again. “Erin, give me time to figure this out. She’s not even awake yet. I was planning on making breakfast and talking to her about it then. If you want, you could join us for lunch after I get the whole story, but I don’t want to overwhelm her first thing in the morning. And, to be totally honest, there will hopefully be plenty of time where I don’t have to be playing babysitter, because I really would like some alone time with my _too handsy_ boyfriend,” he propped himself up on his elbows to level Kelly with a glare.

            “He’s right there, isn’t he?”

            “He is, and he’s making it really difficult to have this conversation with you.”

            “Not something I need to hear about my older brother,” Erin said, though there was a hint of laughter in her voice. “Fine. Lunch. I’ll bring take-out. And, if you’re nice, I’ll offer to take mom out to dinner so you can have part of the evening to yourself. Want me to see if she wants to come stay with me until everything gets sorted out, too?”

            “We will definitely take you up on the dinner offer,” Nick said. “And let’s wait and see for the rest. If she has any interest in staying with us, Kelly and I will have to talk about it. Talk at lunch?

            “Sounds good. Text me with a time that works for you.”

            Nick grunted in response before ending the call and tossing his vacated side of the bed and returning his full attention to a neglected Kelly. “Really, babe?”

            Kelly took the moment to flip them so that Nick was beneath him, and he was looking down at him with a devilish smile. “You were ignoring me. I don’t like being ignored.”

            A smile crept across Nick’s face as his hands landed at Kelly’s hips. It wasn’t a seductive smile…not the one he wore minutes before clothes were being ripped off and sweat was dampening the sheets. It was a small smile…a bit sad and a lot apologetic. “I’m sorry I was ignoring you, Kels, but I’m not going to have sex with you with my mom in the next room. I am, however, going to go make breakfast, and if you stop pouting, there may be pancakes involved.”

            Kelly rolled his hips in response, but eventually tumbled back to his side of the bed, keeping one leg thrown across Nick to hold him in place.

            Nick turned and placed a kiss on Kelly’s forehead before maneuvering out of bed. “Try to sleep a bit longer. I’ll come get you when breakfast is ready.”

            Kelly snagged Nick’s hand and pulled him back for one more kiss before he nodded, curling in on himself and tucking Nick’s pillow beneath him. “Go. Food.”

            Nick’s receding laughter lulled him back to sleep.

***

            Kelly woke with a gasp when a hand on his bare shoulder registered in his sleep. Unlike Nick, he didn’t attack first and ask questions later when jerked from a nightmare, but he did scramble away from the perceived threat, smashing himself against the headboard as he escaped the offending hand.

            “Kels, it’s just me,” came Nick’s quiet voice, barely registering above the pounding in Kelly’s ears and his hitched breathing. “Kels, you were muttering in your sleep. Babe, what’s wrong?”

            Kelly forced himself through a few deep breathing exercises to regulate his pulse and calm his mind before he allowed himself to meet Nick’s worried gaze. “I’m okay, just a nightmare,” he said, though his voice sounded hollow.

            Nick was fully dressed now, in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, though his feet were bare. When Kelly met his eyes finally, Nick crawled onto the bed and towards Kelly, placing a hand on his thigh. “You don’t get nightmares, babe. Or you didn’t used to.” _Miami_ remained unspoken, but there nonetheless.He’d had nightmares since Miami.

            Kelly smiled and closed the space between them by plopping himself into Nick’s lap and wrapping Nick’s arms around him. “Nothing I can’t handle, babe,” he said into Nick’s ear before nuzzling the delicate skin of Nick’s neck. “Your mom awake yet, or do we have a few minutes to make out like teenagers who are afraid of getting caught?”

            In response, Nick leaned forward until Kelly was laid out on the mattress with his legs wrapped around Nick’s waist. “There’s always time for making out like teenagers,” he said, keeping a straight face before diving in to capture Kelly’s mouth with his own.

***

            Despite _distractions_ , they made it into the kitchen before Nick’s mom made her first appearance.

            “Morning, Mom,” Nick said from where was making bacon on the stove while Kelly sat on the counter swinging his legs and chatting with Nick.

            Her eyes traveled between the two of them for a moment before she attempted a smile and moved to sit at the island.

            “Mom, I made pancakes for Kelly, but can fix something else up for you if you’d like? Then, I figured we could talk. Eat. Figure some stuff out?”

            “Pancakes sound good,” she said, keeping her eyes trained on Kelly as she spoke.

            Nick nodded before reaching for a plate and scooping a stack onto her plate. “Bacon should be done in a minute.” He passed her the plate, followed by syrup. “Mom, I know this is awkward,” Nick continued, after a moment of awkward silence passed. “But I think we need to talk about what’s going on with Dad.”

            “Nick, I know this is awkward,” she said, mirroring his tone in a way that fascinated Kelly. “But I think I’d rather talk about you and your friend first.”

            Nick didn’t realize his hand was burning on the stove until Kelly was snatching his arm and thrusting the aloe plant in his direction. “Mom,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “This is Kelly’s home. If you plan on saying anything that will make him uncomfortable, I can call Erin right now because she offered to let you stay there. If, however, you can at least be civil, I really would like to be there for you right now. I know what you’re doing isn’t easy.”

            “Nick-” It was the same tone of voice she used when he was younger and trying to convince her to leave his father. _Nick_. As if he couldn’t possibly understand the inner-workings of a marriage. And maybe he couldn’t back then. But he’d known then, like he knew now, the difference between right and wrong. There was a lot of grey area in there, but his father had always fallen distinctly on the side of _bad_.

            “Mom, just don’t. Save the lecture.” He felt, more than saw, Kelly slip to his feet and move closer to Nick, crowding his space to calm him. “I’m sorry that the person I’ve fallen in love with is not the person you would want for me, but I’m not sorry that I finally found someone I can trust. You get that, don’t you? That after everything that went on at home, on top of everything I had to do when I was deployed, that I had pretty much accepted the fact that I would never truly be comfortable enough to share my life with another person. Jesus, I spent the first few years of our relationship worried I would turn into Dad and hurt Kelly, even though I know he could put me on my ass if I even tried. Do you know what that’s like? Thinking that you will hurt everyone you love? I’m not going to let what happened in that house dictate my whole life anymore, and I’m not going to let you bring that same shit into our home.” He reached up and brushed a hand up Kelly’s arm. “I have screwed up at almost every turn, and for some reason he’s stuck around. He doesn’t deserve to be treated the way you treated me when I came out to you.”

            His mom’s mouth moved up and down though she didn’t make a sound right away. When she did, it was to repeat his name again. “Nick-”

            “Mother-”

            “Nick,” Kelly said, placing a hand on Nick’s arm. “Let her speak.”

            Nick turned to face her, straightening his shoulders as he prepared for a fight. “Nick, I don’t understand your life choices, but the feeling of not knowing my own son for the past few years has not set well with me.” Her words started off stilted, but as she spoke, she gained a bit of confidence. “If you’ll let me, I would really like to try and get to know you again.” He noticed her gaze shift to Kelly for a moment before returning to him. “Both of you.”

            A moment passed before Nick decided to speak. When he did, it was just to say, “Okay then. So what’s this about a divorce?”

            Kelly slid into the seat beside Nick’s mother as they both listened tell them about the events leading up to last night’s phone call.

***

            Drunk. He’d come home drunk after years of begrudged sobriety. She said she’d been thinking about a trial separation for a while now, worried every time he was around his grandkids that he would treat them as he’d treated their oldest children, but had never wanted to set him into a downward spiral. Once he started on that spiral all on his own, she had grabbed her keys, told him she couldn’t do it anymore and to expect divorce paper sometime in the next few weeks.

            It was a side of his mother Nick never expected to see. When he asked her what made her change her mind, she started chatting quite openly about a group of women she’d been meeting with from church for lunch every other week. They all seemed comfortable enough with each other to talk about their problems, so after a while, she started doing the same. They encouraged her to stand up to him. They offered contacts of various attorney relatives and friends who could be of help to her. One woman even pulled her aside and told her she too had struggled to accept her son when he came home with a boyfriend, though they were making progress…they were talking on the phone again every week and meeting for lunch once a month. Nick’s mom admitted she talked to that woman every day now.

            She ended breakfast with the request that she be able to return to her room and try to think through the events of last night on her own and to begin planning her next step. When Nick offered to help, she’d placed a hand on his cheek, looked at him for a moment, and then whispered, “You’re a good boy, Nicko.”

            She’d turned to Kelly then, before returning to her room and placed a hand on his arm. “You treat him right. God knows he deserves it.”

            And with that, she made her way to her room, leaving the two of them, mouths agape.

            After moments of shocked silence, Kelly allowed his gaze to shift towards Nick. Kelly knew things weren’t ‘fixed,’ knew they might never be between Nick and his mom, but as emotions played across Nick’s face, from a confusion-induced frown to wide-eyed shock, Kelly thought that, for perhaps the first time in his life, Nick was starting to consider his mother a potential ally instead of a stranger.   


End file.
